The words came out raw and honest, and I watched them land.Watched something flicker in his expression that might have been hurt if he were capable of it.
“You hate me,” he repeated slowly.“And yet.”
His hand slid from my hip down my thigh, then back up, dragging the hem of my dress with it.I gasped as the cool air hit my bare skin, goosebumps rising in the wake of his fingers.
“And yet your body knows who it belongs to.”
“Stop.”
His fingers traced along the edge of my underwear, teasing, barely there.“Tell me to stop and mean it, and I will.But we both know you don’t want me to stop.You just want to pretend you do.”
I opened my mouth to argue, to tell him he was wrong, that I didn’t want this, didn’t want him.But his hand slipped beneath the cotton, and his fingers found me wet.
The sound he made was low and satisfied.Predatory.Like a wolf scenting prey.
“There she is.”His fingers stroked through my folds, spreading the slickness, learning the shape of me.“The girl who kissed me back two days ago.The girl whose body begs for me even while her mouth says no.”
“I don’t?—”
He pressed one finger inside me, and the words dissolved into a gasp.My hands flew to his chest, meaning to push him away, but my fingers curled into his shirt instead, anchoring myself as my knees threatened to buckle.
“You’ve never had this, have you?”His voice was a dark murmur against my ear, his breath hot on my neck.“Never had a man’s fingers inside you.Never felt what your body can do when someone knows how to touch it.”
“Please.”The word escaped before I could stop it.
“Please what?”He added a second finger, stretching me, and my head fell back against the wall.“Please stop?Or please more?”
I didn’t know.God help me, I didn’t know.I hated him.I hated what he was doing to me, the way he was proving his point with every stroke of his fingers, the way my body was betraying every ounce of independence I’d claimed yesterday.
But the pleasure was building, relentless and unfamiliar, coiling tight in my belly, and I couldn’t make myself say the word that would end it.
He withdrew his hand, and I made a sound of protest that shamed me.A whimper.Needy and desperate and nothing like the capable woman I’d been so proud of this morning.
“Look at me.”
I forced my eyes open.His gaze was molten, intense, burning into mine with an expression I couldn’t read.
“I’m going to make you come,” he said.“Right here in this hallway.And you’re going to remember, every time you think about walking away from me, every time you think you don’t need me, exactly who owns this body.”
Before I could respond, he dropped to his knees.
My brain short-circuited.Raphael Antonov, on his knees in front of me, shoving my dress up to my waist and dragging my underwear down my thighs in one fluid motion.The cold air hit my exposed flesh, and I shivered, suddenly aware of how vulnerable I was.Half-naked in a hallway.At the mercy of a man who had every intention of destroying me.
“What are you?—”
He lifted one of my legs over his shoulder, opening me to him, and then his mouth was on me.
The first stroke of his tongue tore a cry from my throat.Nothing had ever felt like this.Nothing had prepared me for the hot, wet pressure of his mouth against my most sensitive flesh, the way his tongue found my clit and circled it with devastating precision.Like he’d done this a thousand times.Like he already knew exactly what would make me fall apart.
My hands scrabbled against the wall, finding nothing to hold onto.“Oh God.Oh?—”
“That’s it.”He spoke against me, the vibration of his voice adding another layer of sensation that made my toes curl.“Let me hear you.”
He sealed his lips around my clit and sucked, and I screamed.
My fingers found his hair, tangling in the dark strands, pulling him closer even as some distant part of my brain screamed at me to push him away.When I tried to push against his shoulders, his hand shot up and grabbed my wrist, pinning it to the wall above my head.His other hand fisted in my hair, yanking my head back until my throat was exposed.
“Fight all you want.”His voice was a growl against my wet flesh.“You’re still going to come for me.”
